


this venom from my heart, these thoughts of endless night

by jadeandquartz



Series: vampires will never hurt you [1]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Vampires, growing up and turning into a supernatural being are not as different as you might think, the acoc kids die (or experience death) and return as vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25899874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadeandquartz/pseuds/jadeandquartz
Summary: “You...are alive, right?” Jet says, and for a second, she is terrified that Ruby will dissolve into smoke beneath her hands.“I’mhere,”Ruby whispers, then finally hugs her back. But there is something wrong and unsteady in her voice, and as Jet hides her face in her sister’s shoulder, she understands thataliveis no longer the proper word to describe her.***(Or: Death comes for Ruby, Liam, and Jet. They all come back, but they're not quite the same as they were).
Relationships: Liam Wilhelmina Jawbreaker & Jet Rocks & Ruby Rocks
Series: vampires will never hurt you [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1879564
Comments: 10
Kudos: 29





	this venom from my heart, these thoughts of endless night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [littleboxes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/gifts).



> posting this short piece which I wrote last month! it was written for the prompt "liam, jet, and ruby" from @littleboxes over on tumblr, based off of a prompt meme by @londer! I rolled a d20 for the prompt and got "vi. vampires."
> 
> ...therefore, the title is from "vampires will never hurt you" by mcr

Death comes for Ruby first, in the ambush on the Sucrosi Road. Jet climbs up atop the royal carriage to try and stop it, shielding her sister with her body, panic stripping every thought from her mind. Lapin heals Ruby almost as soon as she falls, pulling the bacon-steel arrow from her throat with a swirl of purple magic. It seems, for a moment, as if she will actually make it through. 

But the marauders are ruthless and their aim is true. A second arrow goes straight through Ruby’s heart, and Jet screams as she watches her sister crumple off the roof, tumbling towards the earth below.

The Locket of the Sweetest pulses, briefly, with a final futile spark of light. Then Ruby hits the ground with a horrible _crunch_ , and the light leaves the locket forever.

Still screaming, Jet charges into combat for the first time in her life. Flickerish is wet and dripping with her tears, long before a drop of enemy blood even touches the blade.

But minutes later, Jet picks her way through the mountains of meat-armoured corpses and finds Ruby, well and whole and breathing once more, sitting in the center of the Sucrosi Road. Next to her, the body of the bandit captain lies. He has been neatly bisected by an arrow from Sour Scratch, green strands of sugar cutting him apart at precise, deadly angles. 

“You’re _alive!_ ” Jet yelps, dropping her weapon and scrambling to tackle Ruby with the fiercest hug she can manage. 

She is so caught up in relief that it takes a few moments for her to realize that Ruby’s skin is curiously cold against her own. The steady thump of a heartbeat is conspicuously absent from her sister’s chest. When Jet glances up into Ruby’s face, searching for an explanation, she sees two sharp, pointed teeth curling down and out of her mouth. Fangs that _certainly_ weren’t there before her fall.

There are two seeping puncture wounds in the neck of the bandit captain, Jet sees now - small holes dripping with cheesy blood and gore. Ruby licks her lips, and wipes a thick red stain from her mouth with the back of her hand.   
  
“You...are alive, right?” Jet says, and for a second, she is terrified that Ruby will dissolve into smoke beneath her hands. 

“I’m _here_ ,” Ruby whispers, then finally hugs her back. But there is something wrong and unsteady in her voice, and as Jet hides her face in her sister’s shoulder, she understands that _alive_ is no longer the proper word to describe her. 

*** 

Death comes for Liam next, but it is not his own. Somewhere in the brief heartbeat between Preston’s last squeal and the final downswing of the carrot’s mace, a splinter of darkness pierces his soul. The wound only widens as he sprints through the streets of Comida, barely able to see through the veil of tears streaming down his cheeks.

An hour or two later, sitting in the stolen Vegetanian carriage with Theo’s arm around his shoulder, Liam presses a hand to his chest, and cannot feel his heartbeat within. 

Ruby, sitting across from him, reaches over and carefully takes his hand. She has been exceptionally distant ever since the Sucrosi Road; he’s seen her wandering the halls of their quarters at night more than once, apparently unable to sleep.

Now, she messages him, the eerie chill of her skin making him shiver. _No heartbeat, I’m guessing?_

_Is this what it’s like to be a war guy?_ he responds. Ruby just stares at him, her face unreadable.

_I haven’t slept a day since I died,_ she whispers in his mind. _But that isn’t the worst part. The hunger is the worst part, and I don’t know any way to feed it, other than killing people._

_Oh, I_ ** _know_** _who I’m going to kill,_ Liam says. Ruby nods, resolve in her eyes, and squeezes his hand for a long moment before letting it go.

Barely twenty-four hours later, Liam lands softly on the deck of the House Bleu ship, the storm swirling around him, and drops his peppermint crossbow to the planks below. The closest sailor, alerted by the sound, whips around, and Liam’s fangs rip his throat open before he can even finish the turn.

He drinks in the sharp tang of blood, imagining that it belongs to that _fucking_ carrot paladin instead. No matter how deep he searches, the thought only brings him joy. Below the surface of his skin, sharp things are starting to grow.

_I doubt I could ever sleep again, even if we hadn’t changed into whatever we are now_ , he tells Ruby and Jet in the weeks that follow. _When Preston died, I died too._

*** 

Death comes for Jet last, in the attic above the lingerie shop. Ruby easily dodges out of the way of the first two water-steel daggers meant for her. Her reflexes have been perfect recently, unnatural and _perfect,_ ever since she learned to drink blood and stay awake from dusk til dawn. But she _feels_ the other two pierce her twin’s skin, a phantom pain, and knows the damage is more than enough to strike Jet down for good.

The heir to the throne of Candia falls to the floor, twitching and jerking, gasping for breath. Two months of living a new life is not quite enough to conquer eighteen years of instincts. Ruby wants to sob, to _wail_ , to scream for her sister till her lungs give out.

Instead, she casts Invisibility on herself, and waits. 

Jet’s movements slow, slow, and finally cease.

There is a long silence, broken only by the heavy breathing of the Ceresians. Senator Ciabatta sheathes his weapons, planting his boot on Jet’s body. A grin spreads, unchecked, across his smug, _evil_ face. 

The remaining assassins start to scan the room. They search futilely for Liam, who leans against the door frame, the shadows cloaking him completely from their eyes. He makes eye contact with Ruby, seeing straight through the Invisibility spell, and smiles at her. 

“Spread out and search the street below,” Ciabatta orders, his voice brusque, a note of victory starting to enter it. “There are only two of them left. They _can’t_ have gone far.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Jet whispers from the floor beneath him. Ciabatta jumps backwards with a startled shriek.

Jet’s eyes flicker open, her pupils glowing bright red. Ruby watches as her sister coughs, blood staining her lips; her hands are wet from the still-fresh dagger wounds that run along her ribcage. Her fangs, newly-formed, glint white in the wash of crimson light.

Still dazed, as if waking from a dream, Jet throws Flickerish; the blade hits the wall and clatters to the ground. Then she stands, turning to face her murderers empty-handed.

Ciabatta, his mouth hanging open, looks as if he’s face to face with a ghost. But Ruby knows ghosts well by now. She sees them all the time, in mirrors and mage hands and at the edges of all of her dreams.

Whatever the three of them have become is older, and stronger, and far, _far_ worse.

“I don’t have a heartbeat, Ruby,” Jet says softly.

Liam shuts the attic door and turns the key with a soft click, locking the Ceresians in, cutting off any avenue of escape. Ruby steps out of the Invisibility spell and summons shadowy fire in her empty palm. She bares her fangs in a smile as the soldiers, backed against the wall, start to beg for mercy.

"I know it feels strange, but it’s okay,” she whispers to her sister. “We don’t _need_ hearts anymore.” 

**Author's Note:**

> i cry about the acoc kids a minimum of once per day.
> 
> find me @jadeandquartzes on tumblr!


End file.
